I'm writing this on the night of January 1st, 2007 -- a brave, new, slightly-arbitrary date marker upon which to hang all of our hopes and dreams before we abandon them because they're kinda hard, which frees them up to re-use in 2008. The very model of efficiency.

So, I'm a big "Good Eats" fan, and an Alton Brown fan by turn. If you haven't seen it, it's a show on the Food Network which is basically a culinary version of "Bill Nye, the Science Guy." It's very entertaining, with most of its episodes being enjoyable quite apart from its educational value. Which is good, 'cause, as with most cooking shows, I don't catch even the merest factoid from it the first time through.

There was an episode of "Good Eats" on the subject of making chili, last week. It's a mark of my laziness, but I DO appreciate the episodes wherein they focus on something that I already have a fairly solid grasp of making, 'cause that ups the chances of me ever giving the variant recipe a shot. Or at least incorporating elements thereof -- the chances of full emulation still tend to be slim, as the stocks of my kitchen and the ones featured on the Food Network are somewhat, shall we say, disparate...

This chili recipe -- technically chili con carne -- caught me by surprise in that it didn't feature beans of any sort. I know several people who don't like beans in their chili, but to present any sort of recipe that totally eschews 'em, well, that just steams my... shorts. They should, at the least, be presented as an optional ingredient. It IS chili with meat, after all, not chili without beans. Foolishness!

I fully realize that when it comes to me splitting hairs over chili recipes, I clearly have nothing interesting to talk about. Better things tomorrow, maybe!